In the span of about a year, hedge-fund manager Ted Weschler twice dined with Warren Buffett at Piccolo’s, one of the billionaire investor’s favorite Omaha, Neb., haunts.
Along the way, Mr. Weschler would step out of a crowd of Buffett disciples to become one of a few candidates to replace the Oracle of Omaha as chief investment officer at Berkshire Hathaway Inc. By the end of his second meal at Piccolo’s, Mr. Weschler would have a job offer in hand.
This post is based on interviews with people familiar with Mr. Weschler, Mr. Buffett, and Berkshire. Weschler will start work at Berkshire Hathaway this month, and the challenges of the job were detailed in a Wall Street Journal story today.
Even though Mr. Weschler considered Mr. Buffett a hero, he wasn’t about to trade in his below-the-radar life in Charlottesville, Va., for the challenge of trying to succeed Mr. Buffett. Over the past decade, his fund, Peninsula Capital, had turned in a strong double-digit-percentage annualized return, while the broad Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index was basically flat.
Considering how much money he had made for himself and investors — people familiar with Peninsula estimate that about 40% of its $2 billion in assets is Mr. Weschler’s money — he had enjoyed a fairly anonymous life.
That would begin to change in June 2010, when Mr. Weschler paid a visit to Glide, a homeless charity in San Francisco that Mr. Buffett supports. That very week, Glide was holding its annual fundraiser: an auction, with the top bidder winning a lunch date with Mr. Buffett.
Intrigued by the chance to meet his hero and impressed by Glide, Mr. Weschler put in a bid of $2.6 million. He won the auction, but wishing to remain out of the spotlight, he asked that his identity not be disclosed publicly.
Read the complete article on WSJ
Along the way, Mr. Weschler would step out of a crowd of Buffett disciples to become one of a few candidates to replace the Oracle of Omaha as chief investment officer at Berkshire Hathaway Inc. By the end of his second meal at Piccolo’s, Mr. Weschler would have a job offer in hand.
This post is based on interviews with people familiar with Mr. Weschler, Mr. Buffett, and Berkshire. Weschler will start work at Berkshire Hathaway this month, and the challenges of the job were detailed in a Wall Street Journal story today.
Even though Mr. Weschler considered Mr. Buffett a hero, he wasn’t about to trade in his below-the-radar life in Charlottesville, Va., for the challenge of trying to succeed Mr. Buffett. Over the past decade, his fund, Peninsula Capital, had turned in a strong double-digit-percentage annualized return, while the broad Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index was basically flat.
Considering how much money he had made for himself and investors — people familiar with Peninsula estimate that about 40% of its $2 billion in assets is Mr. Weschler’s money — he had enjoyed a fairly anonymous life.
That would begin to change in June 2010, when Mr. Weschler paid a visit to Glide, a homeless charity in San Francisco that Mr. Buffett supports. That very week, Glide was holding its annual fundraiser: an auction, with the top bidder winning a lunch date with Mr. Buffett.
Intrigued by the chance to meet his hero and impressed by Glide, Mr. Weschler put in a bid of $2.6 million. He won the auction, but wishing to remain out of the spotlight, he asked that his identity not be disclosed publicly.
Read the complete article on WSJ
